Secrets of Wysteria
by MushroomWings
Summary: Our friends head to Hitobashira Glade in order to rescue Sodoma, but all is not as it seems on the abandoned island. *WARNING: This is where things get real. Do not read if even the mere mentioning of deaths frighten you.* EDITED 8/2/2016: Added missing chapter.
1. Prologue: A Tragedy

_**Many years ago, a much smaller, and as such lesser known, island known as Arisu Glade suffered a series of tragedies that would bring it more renown, but not in a way that was good.**_

 _ **On this island, it was very common for minor, non-violent sacrifices to be made in order to bring in crops and rain, amongst other things. A certain group of people, however, decided that these were not enough to bring in satisfactory results. So, they conducted more serious and brutal human sacrifices, often against the victim's wills.**_

 _ **Sacrifices in such a way amongst the islands was considered taboo, and was why if one was needed, the islanders tried to keep it to more minor ones and if killing anything ever had to be involved, they always killed an animal. As such, the lingering, angry spirits of the sacrifices on Arisu brought bad luck and subsequently cursed the area, leading to the remaining inhabitants fleeing and causing the island to fall into a state of despair and death.**_

 _ **The island's former name is not as known now, with the better known Hitobashira taking its place.**_


	2. Chapter 1: Curse

"Diddy, can I ask a question?" Cherah inquired, tugging on the older male's shirt to gain his attention.

"Sure, what is it, Cherah?" Diddy asked.

"What is Hitobashira Glade? I've never heard of it before."

Diddy thought it over before answering. What would be the most child-friendly way of explaining it?

"It's very old and abandoned," he began slowly. "It used to called Arisu Glade, but everyone left."

"Why?" Cherah asked further.

"Well... Ah, how do I put this?" He thought it over once more. There... wasn't much of an easy way to say it. "Cherah, many people died there. There were many sacirfices that would up cursing the island too bad. To be completely honest, that's why it's called Hitobashira, it's a reference to those sacrifices that condemned it."

Cherah, despite constant urges by the others, did not sleep one wink the rest of the way to the island.


	3. Chapter 2: Distress

Sodoma had no idea how long she had been out.

When she was finally able to open her eyes, she noticed the sky above her was a dark gray. The air felt morbid, and the dead-looking grass she laid in reeked of death and despair. She felt the stains of tear tracks marr her face, and looked at the sky to notice the wysterias peppering the gross sky.

The tears returned with a vengeance.

It couldn't have been too much longer when she heard voices near her, and she quieted, struggling to hear.

"What do we do next, sir?" a grunt asked.

"Our next move is to wait," a more refined voice with an air of authority and an I'm-better-than-you personality replied in a tone that implied they thought the grunt was dense. "If those fools know what's good for the girl and themselves, they'll bring the jewels here."

"What if they bring decoys again, Lord Harlequinn?"

"They won't, underling. They've used that trick on us once before, and surely by now they've realized we know their gimmick. They won't be stupid enough to try it twice."


	4. Chapter 3: Trials of Sacrifice

DK hadn't been the least bit surprised when he awoke to find himself seperated from his parents. At this point, he figured something like this would have happened. Still, he hadn't expected to find a little child with dark hair standing above him. The kid appeared soaking wet, but otherwise very eerie. Remembering that this was how the encounter with Catasandre had gone, he just smiled at the boy and waved politely.

The child just stared. Oooooookay.

"Hello," DK started.

The figure didn't respond. Instead, he slowly turned and walked in a different direction. DK stood, following the child until he stopped at a large lake. The child pointed out to it, and became particularly urgent when DK realized there was a small circular area covered in wysteria petals.

"That's where they threw me," the boy spoke suddenly, his voice barely above a whisper. "They wanted rain."

"B-but..." DK started. "How did they get you to stay there? Surely someone would have come to save you."

"They threw it in there. My totem object."

"Totem object?"

"An object that keeps us tied to this world. Please get it back for me."

The child vanished then, suddenly reappearing on the other side of the lake.

DK put a foot into the water, cringing hard at how cold it felt. He let his body become adjusted to the temperature before continuing deeper and deeper until he was completely submerged. The water had appeared murky on the outside, but he was able to see clear as day underneath. slowly he made his way to the patch of wysteria petals, diving deeper once he reached the ceter of it.

He became taken aback when he actually found a skeleton in the center of the spot. Clutched in their hand was a small stuffed toy, which would likely disintegrate when touched. To his surprise, he was able to pick it up with ease and examine it. It seemed almost brand-new, and it was very possible it had been given to the child not long before his death.

DK slowly resurfaced, and was quite happy to find dry land relatively close.

"Thank you," the child's voice echoed strangely once he set foot on land. He turned around to see the child already holding the stuffed toy, and found himself as dry as he had been before entering the water. "The fields are just ahead. Keep going."

XxX

Cranky's immediate first thought upon coming-to was of the artifacts. He quickly located the bag and breathed a heavy sigh of relief upon finding it in his coat unscathed. He began to take in his surroundings and noticed a dark haired child watching him from a distance. Blood seemed to pool around the left temple on his head, matting his hair in the process.

"Are you all right?" Cranky asked, slowly standing and approaching.

The child began to walk in the opposite direction, into what resembled a maze of dead trees. Cranky followed, curious where the figure could be going.

"Up there," the child whispered, pointing to a tree. The formerly living wood was rather tall, but Cranky could sill make out a faint outline of somthing partially deflated. The child, however, was pointing at the broken part of a branch. "That's where I fell. They wanted a better harvest."

"Why did you fall?" Cranky asked.

"They threw my totem up there."

"Why? What reason would you or they have for you to need a totem object?"

"I was a sacrifice." Cranky felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "They tried to make some of us seem like mere accidents in order to not break the taboo. Mine was one of the more believable ones."

"If I get the object for you, will you be able to rest?" Cranky asked.

"Yes, I will."

The child was suddenly on one of the lower branches of the nearby tree.

Cranky took a minute to gauge the best way to tackle the tree. The limbs would probably come off quickly so he needed to be fast, but still made sure to keep stable footing. Slowly he began to work his way up, finally getting to the topmost branch where the toy sat.

It was a ball, faded with age and wrapped in a protective cloth. It seemed fairly deflated, suggesting the child's death had been one of the last sacrifices to occur, but seemed to instantaneously inflate and returned to it's pre-faded state once he'd removed it from the tree. He examined the ball then, not realizing the branch he'd been sitting on had snapped until he was falling through the air.

Cranky somehow managed to land on his feet, although the impact managed to stun him momentarily and cause him to fall to his back. The ball was suddenly out of his hands and as soon as his mind was brought back up to speed on what had happened, he glanced around for any sign of it. He noticed the child holding it, and that the tree the ball had been in seemed to revitalize, wysteria flowers dancing breezily despite the lack of wind. The island leader realized there was a row of trees on either side that had been revitalized as well,opening a new path for him.

"Thank you," the child said. "You're almost to the fields. You can make it!"

XxX

Wrinkly had somehow gained a throbbing headache while she had been out, and it was the very first thing that greeted her when she came back to consciousness. She groaned as she sat up, thankful that it at least proved she was still alive. Sitting near her was a little girl, red hair tangled and overshadowing her face. The child watched her with a blank stare, and it unnerved the older female considerably.

"What are you doing here?" Wrinkly asked.

The child looked at her before standing, allowing her to see the charred streaks marring the figure's outfit and what of her limbs was visible. Parts of her clothing even had holes burned into it, exposing deathly pale flesh. The little girl began to walk toward a gathering of houses with a word. Wrinkly found herself following, realizing suddenly that what she felt wasn't fear, but concern for the child. The figure stopped suddenly, pointing to the most damaged of the houses in the gathering. Strangely, despite there being no plants other than the dead, yellowed grass surrounding it, there was a circle of wysteria petals around the abode, as if a target mark.

"That's the place," the child spoke.

"What happened?" Wrinkly said, despite knowing the answer in her gut.

"They locked me in there with my totem. And they burned it."

Oh _**hell**_ no.

"B-burned?" Wrinkly stuttered.

"Boom. Up in flames." The child turned to her, a sad look on her face. "I can't rest without my totem. I can't get it myself."

"You're a ghost though, aren't you? Although if your object is still whole, I imagine that's why you can't."

Wrinkly took a deep breath and approached the house. Oddly, there was a seemingly new lock on the door, still shining bright against the charred blackness of the door. She searched around for a heavy stone, eventually finding one and knocking the lock off along with the door handle. Carefully she entered the house, stepping lightly and quickly so as not to go through the floor.

After a few steps, the door slammed closed behind her and bright flames sprung up, illuminating the inside and returning it to an unburnt state. The sudden appearance of the fire sent her to the floor, the hardness of which had surprised her. She stared, unmoving, at the door as the flames covered and consumed it. The flames started coming toward her, but she hadn't realized it until the fire had reached the leghole of her pants. She rushed to the next room, and oddly the flame never seemed to follow her beyond the doorway.

Wrinkly slapped at the flames frantically, eventually managing to put them out. Minor burns had appeared on her hands, but were minor compared to the feeling that being surrounded by her pyrophobia brought. She looked around the new room where she found a soft doll. Dark streaks in similar position to the little girl's marked the toy's form, and looked like it could very well crumble up once lifted from it's spot.

To be honest, her maternal instincts seemed to have kicked in as soon as she laid eyes on the child. It was a combination between these instincts and the adrenaline coarsing through her body that silently convince her to finally pick up the doll, and to her surprise, the toy seemed completely fine. A little worn, as if it were a hand-me-down, but was otherwise fine.

The fire flared up again, and the feelings that had urge her to retrieve the toy were replaced with more fear. The walls seemed too sturdy to break through, but surely the fire that had englufed the door would have made it weaker. It wasn't the best option in her opinion, but it was her only way out at this point. She stuffed the doll into her jacket and zipped it up, trying to prepare herself for the blaze that waited her dead ahead.

Wrinkly made a mad dash towards the door, hitting against it with all her strength. She managed to break it down, despite how hard it still felt, and the force she hit it with lauched her down the porch of the house and to the barren ground in front of it. Quickly she threw of her coatand started hitting at the fire she remembered hitting her legs. A minute had passed before she realized she was fine. No marks showing the flames that had touched her body seemed to bee there, even around where it had hit her in the main room of the house. She examined her hands, noting how they appeared and felt as though they had never been harmed in the first place.

The child appeared in front of her then, holding the doll tightly to her person.

"Thank you for getting my object," she said. She pointed behind Wrinkly, who turned to find the house back in the condition it had been in before she had broken the lock, with the same lock even back on it. "That is the way to the Accursed Fields. You'll find your friends there too. Hurry!"


	5. Chapter 4: Rescue

It was really odd to think they had all been so close together when they finally reunited, but they were very relieved when they finally met up.

"Did you all... um..." DK began.

"Meet up with a dead child forced into being a sacrifice?" Cranky finished. "If that's what you were about to ask, then yes." Both males turned to Wrinkly, who still seemed a little shaken by her ordeal.

"Are you all right?"

"Mine died in a fire," she murmured. "She was... she was just a little girl."

"Mine fell from a tree," Cranky said. "He said the people who did the sacrifices purposely made them look like accidents so as not to break the taboo."

"The one I encountered drowned trying to rescue a toy," DK said. "I found his skeleton at the bottom of the lake." He noticed his mother place her head in her hands, visbily trembling. "Mom?"

"Th-the fire touched me," Wrinkly said. "I had... To get out of it I had to get covered in it. I don't like fire... And that child, she..."

Cranky approached her then, wrapping his arms around her in an attempt to calm her. They were both silent, and as DK watched, he got the strangest feeling it hadn't been the first time she'd had to encounter a similar situation. He'd always known even the smallest flicker to scare her, but this only made him think there was more to it than what she had always told him.

"I'm... I'll be fine," she finally said. "There's no need to dwell on it now. I was... caught in a moment. Sodoma is supposed to be our priority. Let's focus on getting her back."

XIV

Despite what the children had said, it was still quite a long time before they reached the fields. Honestly, the place looked like a mix between a cemetary and an old-fashioned funeral ground. There were stone markers and pyres for cremation spread around the area. It was another five minute walk to find the Lombado, who as promised were waiting with Sodoma.

"So I see the children didn't deter you," the one who was obviously the leader sneered.

"What matters about it now?" DK asked. "We had a deal. You had over Sodoma, we give you the artifacts."

"And why not the other way around?"

"How else are we to know you'll give her back?" The leader laughed, noise sounding similar to a hyena.

"Good point, little boy!" He tossed Sodoma to them, and DK handed him the bag once she was safely on their end.

"Are you OK?" Wrinkly asked the shaking girl.

"I-I guess," Sodoma sniffed. "I can't believe you guys did that. You should have just left me!"

"Darling, I'm so sorry," a familiar voice suddenly came. "We do what we must to ensure your protection."

The leader of the Lombadan group laughed harder at their expression once Orion emerged from behind a pyre.


	6. Chapter 5: The Manner of Things

"F-father?" Sodoma whimpered, her shaking worsening. A look of utter shock had etched itself on her face, and her skin had sickenly pale.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Wrinkly growled. She lurched towards her cousin, ready to skin him with her bare hands, but was held back by Cranky. "I knew it! I can't even trust my own fucking blood anymore! You think you're protecting Sodoma, but you've only ensured her demise! How fucking dare you, Orion!"

"Calm down," Cranky said sternly, despite his own blood boilng. "We won't get any answers with you acting like this."

"You low-life, waste of brain matter, waste of air ASS CUNT TWATWAFFLE! You're not fit to be any island's ruler, much less Aqua Reef's! I've seen first hand what these people can do! They're going to kill everybody! And because of what? Because the only person who's ever mattered to you is some little, inexperienced, annoying git who thinks just because she's the next ruler of an island where the rebels are the ones in control, that means she knows how they think!" Orion was unphased, even as tears began to spill from the older cousin's eyes. "I asked you... I begged you... I just wanted to know whose side you were on and you even told me you were on ours. This isn't being on our side, Orion. This is being on theirs."

"I figured you of all people would have understood, Inari," Orion said calmly. "Not only for the reasons you've already stated, but you've told me yourself that you'd crush whole lands for your children. Why is what I'm doing any different?"

"BECAUSE THIS IS STRAIGHT-UP GENOCIDE!" Wrinkly shouted back, managing to wrench her arms free from her husband's grasp. "I had meant that in the TERRAIN sense! Not the murder-everyone-except-us sense!"

"There's a difference?" the leader of the Lombado group asked, but was ultimately ignored.

"The Lombado promised me a world free of wars. You've said it yourself: you've seen war, and I haven't. But I know what it can do to those involved. You didn't immediately return to Aqua Reef when the war ended, but we did. It was hell. Despite the relief people showed, there was underlying tensions. More riots broke out in the first few months after the end of the war than they'd ever had before. Over time, things got better, but the fear of history repeating itself always lingers in the back of your mind. When Sodoma was born, I sheltered her heavily. She's come out, as you said, 'an annoying know-it-all git' about it, but I suffer what I must to protect her the best I can."

"You're a babbling fool," DK said, stepping in before Wrinkly could go on any further tirades. "Do you really think these people will spare you and your daughter? I don't think even Sodoma agrees with your logic. Your heart is in the right place, that I'll admit, but it is misguided in its attempts to fulfill its desires."

"If you were a father," A gleam of anger shone in Orion's gold eyes, "you would understand."

"Motherfucker, if only fathers are able to understand this, then I must not be one," Cranky said. "I can't understand any of the shit coming from your mouth! DK is right. The Lombado won't spare anyone. Hell, I'll be surprised if they spare their own race! There was a reason the Ancient Mages tried to destroy the Lombado, and you're only further proving that reason!"

"And what would you know of war?" Orion took a step forward, trying to seem intimidating. None of the others moved even a millimeter. "You've lived in peace your whole life! War! Is! Hell!"

"I've fought in them. You think everything is all fine and dandy on Kongo Bongo? Three wars of different severity happened in the first two years that I became her leader! The difference was that we managed to keep two of them isolated to areas of the island that allowed us to limit civilian casualties!" Cranky clenched his hands into fists. "In two of them I nearly died. Don't you stand here and fucking _tell_ me war is hell!"

One of the older man's fists collided with Orion's face. At this, Sodoma managed to snap out of her trance.

"STOP!" she shouted. "Stop! Please! Please, no more senselessness!"

There was an eerie silence amongst everyone. Even the Lombado didn't know what to say.

"You know what?" the Lombadan leader said. "I can't believe I'm saying this. The child is right."

More eerie silence. The group of four began to back up slowly. The Lombadan walked over to Orion, who had fallen to the ground after Cranky had punched him, and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt. The villain's hand began to glow, and an evil smile appeared on his face.

"No more senselessness, hm? You've already outrun your usefulness!"


	7. Chapter 6: The Forbidden Truth

Sodoma screamed as the glowing appendaged pierced her father's skin, and exited through the other side of his body. DK and Cranky almost immediately started running back the way they had come, Wrinkly stopping behind them to pull Sodoma along. In her distress, the girl stumbled and struggled to keep up with the pace set by the others. As such, it wasn't until they were near where they had been knocked out upon stepping foot on land that Cranky and DK even realized the girls weren't with them anymore.

"SHIT!" Cranky shouted.

"Should we go back?!" DK asked.

"I don't know." Cranky frowned, frantically writting out characters in the air in the direction they had came. "Hopefully the Lombado are too distracted to go after them. I'm casting a cloaking spell on them that should wear off once they get near. If they're not with us soon, we'll go back."

XxX

Wrinkly knew things were getting bad when she saw a silhouette of the Tear appear on Sodoma's forehead.

The emotions surrounding what had just been happened must have been getting the better of her. The older of the two could hardly pull the younger along anymore. The best option was just to wait until it passed, and hope the Lombado didn't wise up to their plan and come looking for them. An eternity seemed to pass before the magics showed any sign of stopping, and Sodoma lifted her head to look at Wrinkly.

"Sodoma, come on," the latter quietly urged. "We have to keep going before the Lombado come."

"Inari...?" Sodoma raised her head weakly, the surge of power having taken a lot out of her.

"I'm here. I'm here, Sodoma, I promise. I'm so sorry for what I said about you... You're not annoying, I was just pissed off and-"

Sodoma raised a hand, the tips of her fingers grazing Wrinkly's face in a half-assed attempt to quiet her.

"Someone... or something... showed me a vision when the Lombado had me..." The Tear began to fade, and the girl's strenght was slowly returning. "All those years ago... It wasn't... meant to happen how it did..."

"Sodoma, Sodoma, shhh. Don't speak. You're already weak enough as it is. Whatever it is, you can say later! use your energy to run!"

"It's got to be said." Tears began to well up in Sodoma's eyes as the memory of the vision came back to her. "The Lombado tried to kickstart these events years ago... by causing a similar situation to now..."

"What? What do you..." Wrinkly began, but stopped herself.

No. Whatever it was could wait. They needed to go.

"They tried... to elicit a Tear holder's response... They needed a response from all three... in order to unlock the gate enough... for Harlequinn and a few more Lombado... to escape... and do what was needed..."

"What does Catasandre have to do with any of that?! Why would they have needed to trigger-"

Wrinkly stopped dead in her tracks as the implications hit her.

"Catasandre... foiled their plan... That's why these events are happening only now..." Sodoma coughed.

"No... please don't say what I think you're going to say, Sodoma!" the former Controller pleaded.

"I... I have to... You were meant to die that night... Not her..."


	8. Chapter 7: Ruse

DK and Cranky feared the worst when they finally found the girls. Sodoma was lying in the grass in an unconscious but still thankfully alive state while Wrinkly stared ahead, too shocked by something unknown to even care to have acknowledged their presence until DK picked Sodoma up. Cranky managed to lug his wife to her feet and they headed back to the ship.

"DOMA!" Cherah shrieked, seeing the unconscious form of her new dear friend. "Doma! Doma! Are you OK?!"

"She's out like a light," DK replied nervously.

"What the hell happened out there?!" Diddy demanded. "What did this?!"

"It's no time for that explanation! We've got to go before the Lombado realize what we've done!" Cranky shouted back.

Some time later, when the group was a safe distance from Hitobashira Glade some time later, Sodoma finally managed to open her eyes. There was a chorus of praises to whatever gods were out there that she was safe, and Cherah practically climbed into her lap and refused to let go. The events in the fields came back to Sodoma slowly, and as soon as she could speak, she turned to DK.

"Please... DK, please tell me you didn't actually give the Lombado the stones?" she asked. DK grinned widely.

"Well," he began, "we did in a way."

XxX

Harlequinn screamed in frustrastion and threw down the sack containing the jewels. He razed the fields, burning everything he could find and cruelly kicking at Orion, who was somehow still alive, mutiple times. The grunts just backed away slowly, letting their boss have his hissy fit. Once Harlequinn had calmed down enough to just be blowing steam out of his orifaces and cursing the heroes out, the grunts looked to the sack.

Spilling out of the bag were three rocks that held a vague shape resemblence to the three gems. Orion, noticing this fraud, could only grin. Maybe he had been too quick to judge the others on their planning.

XxX

Sodoma smiled as wide as she could.

"That's hilarious," she said.

"The best part is they didn't even fucking check the bag before we left!" DK grinned. "Finding one that looked close enough to the sun was the real trick, though."


	9. Chapter 8: Plan

"Wait, so where's the next place on the list?" Dixie asked.

"According to the list the woman from DK's dream gave him, it's..." Cranky stopped, his eyes growing wide. He looked from the paper to DK, shock apparent on his face.

"What is it?" Diddy asked.

"Yes, where must we go?" Sodoma added.

"Attria City," Cranky murmured.

There was a silence in the group. Half of them didn't understand why that was so shocking, the other half did.

"Y-you don't mean-?" K. Rool started.

"I do." Cranky showed him the list, and looked to the confused members of the group. "A very old and relatively unknown portion of the islands' legends, at least for Kongo Bongo, is that when Homura was split into four, its capitol, the center of the continent and the only place all four territories shared a border, was left unstable like Konoro, Reffira, and Crena. With the remaining energies of the spirits used to create the Ruby Sun, the Sapphire Tear, and the Crystal Coconut, as well as a bit of energy from what was then not known as the Crocodile Core, a new Jewel was created and hidden, so as to keep it afloat. The unknown gem also locked out the surrounding area, so it would be very difficult to attain entrance. This particular part was deemed a myth at some point by one of my ancestors, and promptly left out of the legends told from island ruler to island ruler."

"Your ancestors were dicks," Sodoma suddenly said, causing Cranky to start stuttering. "Even I was told about it, and I'm not the true heir to Aqua Reef's monarchy."

"Yes... Well."

"Wait, if it was deemed a myth by your ancestors, then how do YOU know about it?" Candy asked.

"I... I only recently found it in one of my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather's books," Cranky said sternly. "Anyway, it's considered inaccessible by normal means. Because of the fact four different power sources are used to keep it risen, only one of the Jewels commanded by someone with the blood of the island's Mage can open the gate."

"So that counts me out then," Sodoma murmured, her face flushing.

"So with Our Fair Lady out, that leaves you, DK, Cherah, and myself," K. Rool added.

"I vote K. Rool," DK immediately said.

"I wouldn't be so quick to vote him if I were you," Cranky tsked. "Note I said the Jewels and a descendant of that island's Mage. K. Rool comes from the island where the original power source was located. While the Mage's blood was fused with the Core's power, no Jewel means he can't open the gateway."

"It's not just that!" Cherah piped up. "The Jewel has to choose for itself. Three Jewels mean at least four possibilities."

"Four?" Diddy asked.

"Me, Uncle, DK, and Sodoma!"

"But how would we know who exactly the chosen descendant is amongst the possibilities?" DK asked.

"When a Keeper dies before having passed on the Jewel, they became a new and more recent protector, much like the souls that were used to create them," Cranky said. "Their spirit, once enticed at the Gateway to Attria, will appear. If done right, they will initiate an emotional response strong enough to allow entry. And it may not seem like it, but the last one to have died before passing on the Crystal Coconut was my grandfather, who died when I was very young, which rules DK out."

"It would rule Sodoma out as well," Wrinkly finally added in. "I was given the Tear by my... ehrrrr... a relative I hadn't met before, but had alerted the island ruler I was capable of handling it."

"Uncle! It looks like we're the only ones who can open the way to the City," Cherah said sadly, looking to Cranky.

"Cherah?" Dixie asked. "Might we ask who was the last one to hold the Ruby Sun that passed before handing it down to you?"

Cherah was quiet for a few moments.

"My mommy."


End file.
